DR for everyone?

[Wight]

I've been reading up on all the entries on the DR, including some very interesting RP stories. I am planning (hoping to?) on making it part of my RP.  Unforunately, now I'm a bit unsure how to work it.   


1.  Does everyone go to the Death Realm after they die?  This would include the non-heroic types, such as NPC merchants (assuming they died for some reason) and other citizens that exist in RP.  The assumption being that only hero-types escape from the DR for whatever reason (various reasons have been brought up in various other threads).  Or do only the hero-types (players) go to DR which is unrelated to the destination of the corpses dumped down the chutes?

2.  Is the Stone Face in the hills really related to the Death Realm?  The portal in the DR has a similar face.  I find the connection very interesting, but haven't found anything "official" on the subject.  I like the idea and it would be perfect setting in my character's story.

3.  After discussing the DR in game with a GM, I was informed that the consensus is that it is an alternate plane.  But, if 1 (above) is true then would it not be what was outside of Yliakum as well? The DR being where all corpses are dumped after death and only the heroic types are not content enough to remain with the "garbage"; the "citizens" who have not died would not realize that there is some continuation after death (such as reawakening of the corpse, ghosts, etc) in an RP sense.

4.  There are no days/nights in the DR right?  No crystal = no light, right?  Sorry, that one is kind of lame but it ties into the above questions.

[Karyuu]

Hiya! :}

1. Everyone goes to the death realm, but the reason why PCs come back from there is because we're so smart and clever and all, and because we're all supposed to be heroes. However, eventually it won't be as easy to get out as it is now. You'll have to go through a lot of things to get back up on the ground, and among the commoners, that's thought of as an impossible thing to do.

2. The Stone Face is regarded as a funeral well, so it has slight connections in appearance and the theme of death. [ Edit: It's actually a garbage disposal chute. ]

3. The DR is another plane - it's not just outside of Yliakum, it's another realm. Spirit world, whatever you call it :}

4. Interesting question, and I believe with the atmosphere being so dark, it is a Realm of Night.

[Wight]

Thank you.  I think I can work out my story now and be confident I can keep it consistent.   

One more quick question though, since the funeral well is a portal to the DR, would it be possible for living people to travel back and forth between the DR?  I don't think I saw that one answered.  Just curious if a character was to make the DR "home" and only travel occasionally to the living realm, would death be the only way to make the journey or could one journey by way of the chutes while living?  Or say, perhaps if you were a Dermorian  , and you were stealing corpses... 

[Karyuu]

No no, it's not a portal at all. If people are RPing it a portal, they are not doing it from official sources. There was a book in Jayose's about funeral wells.

Characters may be able to travel back and forth with the aid of some serious magic in the future. However, this is very intricate and laborious, and definitely not a light matter to be tried by everyone aspiring to use the Ways.

[Wight]

No I don't think anyone is RPing the chute as a portal to the DR.  Sorry that was an assumption on my part.  DR = different plane of existence --> requiring portal back --> therefore required portal there because the ducts are mentioned as being dug out of the rock.

Ducts that have been dug out in the rock are used to dispose of human waste. Larger rubbish and bodies are simply thrown into almost vertical and apparently endless wells. Nobody seems to care about where all of this junk finally ends up, since the stalactite theory is only devised by some Xacha scientists and has not been proven yet. Dead bodies are eliminated the same way.

I thought that the "portal" was part of the structure itself (the duct, the chute, well, etc) after having heard the exit from the DR referred to as a portal.  I will look for the book at Jayose's.

Thanks again for the clarification.

[Karyuu]

Ducts for waste disposal most certainly are not used as portals for the DR, nor does that waste end up in the DR :}

There are no ghosts. Either one is dead, or one is alive.

[sesmi]

I think you misunderstand. the death realm is an afterlife of sorts. it's not like you wake up after being dumped out the chutes. you're not in your body anymore.

[Herleva]

There is a Death Realm citizen neither dead, nor alive...

[Wight]

Sesmi:

I've gathered that now from Karyuu's replies.  Unfortunately that doesn't help the situation for me.  So, each time we return from the DR we have a new body?  Or reaquire our old body that was discarded (presumably) from the funeral chute/duct/well?     Is the return remanifestation, reincarnation or what?  Something isn't logical, if the body has been disposed of with the waste then how do we return to it after we escape the DR?

I realize that the game mechanics require us to respawn someplace, but even the storyline does not suggest that we are escaping the DR to reinhabit our original bodies as-is  or else there would have been some exploration of the funeral chute/duct/well since some form of escape from them would be necessary also.  I wasn't trying to get into debating the finer aspects of the DR, but I wanted to understand the "official" stance on it.


I thought I had an interesting character, but I think I may have to reevaluate it and try something else.   

[Rockhoof]

I have another question regarding the Death Realm.

If it's going to be much harder to escape from in the future, what happens when a relatively low-powered character is sent there?

The re-incarnation bit is pretty easy to explain, I'm more worried about the game-balance effects of having some poor schlub die and then not be able to get out.

I see a couple of ways to go with this:

1. The easy way: Characters of lesser power have an easier time leaving the death realm.  Being capable of leaving is a feat in and of itself worthy of some note, but the Death Realm itself does not hold as tightly to those lesser beings.

2. The hard way: The death realm is a realm in and of itself, on equal playability footing as Hydlaa.  This means there are trainers, and quests and shops and everything.  This has great potential for story and introducing PvP with a reason.  A whole new 'side' of player characters can be developed.  Doing quests in the Death Realm gives XP as normal, but also gives you 'Death Realm' reputation, meaning that, after a certain point, trainers, shop-keepers and other NPCs will have you listed as KoS.  Likewise completing quests in Hydlaa gives 'Life Realm' reputation, dictating that the vendors, shop-keepers and other NPCs will 'hate' you in the Death Realm.  This way, the more 'powerful' you are, the harder it is to exist in the realm opposite to you.  I'm not sure that a 'neutral' setting with both parties should be beneficial, basically if neither thinks very well of you, why should they offer you goods and services, then again, suitable penalties could be enacted to ensure that only a very few -and foolhardy- players would even WANT to go down that path.

This creates a three-sided aggresion map, which is ALWAYS more interesting than a duo-sided one.  I dunno if it's worth the effort required though.  To be honest, a lot of stuff could be copy-pasted, and there should be a multitude of quests that involve neither side anyways.

Then again, maybe there's a third option that I've missed.  Anyone with suggestions?

[Karyuu]

The DR is going to be expanded more along your #2 item. There will be NPCs that make the DR their home, and it will be an immense world in and of itself.

The Death Realm will become a lot bigger in the future, allowing full quests and "life".

Of course before such an expansion could be made, we need to balance out death in the first place - make sure that new players won't find themselves falling to their knees unless they purposefully go searching for this.

[narita]

Why don't we ever see any gladiator or rogue in the Death Realm?
It's very strange because of the great flow of there deaths.
Also, they come back on Yliakum very fast, compared to me, and near the place of there death.

[Karyuu]

Narita, spawn problems have been discussed multiple times in the Wishlist. If you like, you can search for those past discussions to read on some suggestions and dev answers on the issues. Needless to say, NPCs coming back so quickly and at the exact same spot is not the best situation and it will most definitely be fixed in the future.

Moreover, the current Death Realm is not big enough to hold attackable NPCs.

[narita]

I didn't argue OOC about NPC issues or didn't tryied to revive old threads, Karyuu, I'm just looking for a IC reasons for people who don't appear in the DR despite there death, because it's the topic.

If you just tell they are here but  they run extra fast due to a bug, so we can't notice them, it's ok. I would also like to know if rats and ulbers go to the DR in the same way.

[Bereror]

Why don't we ever see any gladiator or rogue in the Death Realm?

There was a Gladiator in the DR once, but a GM renamed him quickly

Back to your question:

Maybe there are many parallel realms and the Death Realm known to us is only one of them.

Maybe the new gladiator is not the same than the one who was just killed. I don't know about gladiators, but trepors are definitely not coming back. If you stay at the spawn spot, then the new trepor never attacks you unless you attack first. I would guess that the same trepor would be extra mad at you